That was evident Friday night as Reading topped Bronson 45-34 in the Class C District 68 Finals.

Bronson turned the ball over 26 times in the loss and sent Reading to the foul line for 43 shots.

“You can’t turn the ball over 26 times in a game like this and you also can’t send them to the line 43 times,” Bronson coach Andy Hatt said. “I thought we played hard, we fought hard and I just feel like we gave them too many opportunities and they took advantage of that.”

Reading and Bronson played a pretty up and down style of action in the first quarter of action, but Bronson was able to hold a 6-3 advantage after the first eight minutes.

The Lady Vikings battled some of those turnovers in the opening quarter, but were able to slug out a lead midway into the second quarter as well.

Yet, Reading was able to hit some free throws and connect on shots in transition and took a few 1-point leads as the game went back and forth.

Bronson scored 14 second quarter points compared to 18 for Reading, as the Lady Rangers led 21-20 at the break. The Lady Vikings did still have some turnovers in the second, and Reading’s pressure helped.

“There were times where we got some decent looks and give them (Reading) credit, they pressured us tonight,” Hatt said. “But it’s not anything we haven’t already seen. We weren’t able to be comfortable to run some of our offense but we were able to execute well at times.”

In the third, Bronson chipped away and trailed by just a single point, but Reading was able to continue to push the ball in transition.

While they didn’t control the game completely on the offensive end, they were able to knock down free throws at a pretty good pace.

Reading finished with 43 total free throws on the night, connecting for 23 of them.

“They out-scored us by 16 at the free-throw line and we lost by 11, so that’s a major factor in this game,” Hatt said. “We shot a similar percentage from the field and we actually shot a better percentage from the foul line, but we gave them too many chances tonight, we gave them too many opportunities.”

In the fourth Reading attempted to stall several times, but Bronson applied pressure and caused some turnovers.

Yet, when the Lady Vikings ran in transition they also committed some turnovers and weren’t able to hit key shots.

Page 2 of 2 - Reading held a 10-5 edge in the fourth quarter and hit for 8-of-12 free throws in the final three minutes of the game.

Skyler Sobeski led Bronson with eight points while Kinslea Blouin tossed in six. Chipping in five points each was Kylei Ratkowski and Liz Baker.

Amberly Bercaw finished with four points and nine rebounds, Kassidy Bystry had four points and Mallorie Bassage added two points and 10 rebounds.

After the game, Hatt talked about the importance of his seniors — Bercaw, Ratkowski, Kelsey Scheenks, Sarah Morgan and Kayla Roberts.

“It’s so hard to be in that locker room right now, I told our seniors that they helped elevate our program from where it was when I first got here to where we are now,” Hatt said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to close this out tonight. But compared to the first couple of years where we weren’t very competitive in the districts to now, where we expect to win district titles, we’ve made some big strides.”

Hatt said he hopes the younger players on his team are able to see how important this year’s seniors were to the program.

“I hope our younger girls can see the sacrifices our older girls have made to get us where we are,” he said. “Hopefully they can follow in their footsteps.”

Reading was led in scoring by Michelle Davis’ 19 points, 11 of which came from the foul line.